


718 days

by fondueatspeedys



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: I'm Bad At Summaries, Suicidal Thoughts, Teen John Watson, Teen Sherlock, Teenlock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-31
Updated: 2014-05-31
Packaged: 2018-01-27 20:25:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1721495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fondueatspeedys/pseuds/fondueatspeedys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John starts a new school on the outskirts of a small town in Yorkshire. He hates it but he only has 718 days left until he is free of the place and can join the Army.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm super bad at summaries. This is based on my own experience of starting a new school a few weeks back. Unfortunately I haven't met a Sherlock yet but I keep my fingers crossed. I have no idea if I will continue this as it was written late at night when I was tired upset and dreading the thought of getting up in the morning.

He feels pathetic as he cries. _Get your shit together Watson_  -  _you're fourteen years old for gods sake and you're crying yourself to sleep like a baby_. But he misses his friends already. He misses Ben and Alex and Jamie. Wishes he could go back - back to the city. Wishes he could get rid of the crawling feeling in his stomach. 

\-- 

The school bus is torture. He sits on his own, headphones jammed deep in his ears. Not daring to look as the bus fills at every stop. Nobody sits next to him but he feels the eyes on him. On his bag, the way he wear his blazer, his hair cut. Trying to figure out what his social standing will be. 

\-- 

He feels too new. His blazer is too big and his bag is too heavy - filled with textbooks for every lesson. No idea what his timetable will be. He sits, slumped on a fake velvet chair as he waits for his head of house to take him to lesson. They don't come. Second bell goes and students brush past him. Happy, chatty. Not a worry in the world. 

\-- 

A crumpled timetable is shoved at him along with a map and a student planner. He finds his way to lesson - only 10 minutes late. Religious Education. There's a film playing but nobody is watching it. Not even John, he's too busy trying to figure the map out - too scared to ask someone where his next lesson is. 

\-- 

_What the hell is a present tense verb in German_. _Should have paid more attention Watson. Idiot._  He can't even ask anyone - the classroom is silent and he's sat on his own. Can't ask the teacher either, don't want to seem dumb. He slips out before the teacher can hand him the homework task. 

\-- 

He doesn't go to tutor time instead he hides in the bathroom reading graffiti on the inside of the cubicle door. Still can't work the map out. His bag chafes at his shoulder and his shirt rubs at his neck. Nobody will notice if he undoes his top button - the threat of sitting in the learning support room if he does appeals to him. What if he didn't wear his tie? They might send him home - worth a try. 

\-- 

He hasn't talked to anyone yet, only to announce his name to the class and apologise for being late. He's silent as he pushes past people in the corridor. Someone catches him at break time - desperately trying to contact his old friends - needing someone to talk to that won't pity him. He doesn't find anyone and gets his phone confiscated in the running. 

\-- 

The teacher that took his phone shows him how the lunch queue works. He forgets his plate and the dinner lady asks him his name. "John." He grunts and is greeted with a coo from the cook and a hello from an over enthusiastic year 7 student in the line next to him.

\-- 

He sits on his own at lunch and ignores the cursory glances from his peers. There's a scuffle in the dinner hall and he's glad all the eyes are on that instead of him. It's a bit of a change. 

\--

_Find a partner._ John keeps his eyes fixed on his feet. Nobody wants to go with the new kid. He's good at rugby but nobody knows that. Not yet. He's partnered with the teacher. Not really sure he's allowed to rugby tackle him. He does anyway. Nice outlet of anger. Some jerk is watching from the sideline - his eyes peering from over the top of a book. Perv.

\-- 

He misses his bus. Doesn't have a phone to ring his parents on and it's started to rain. It's only 4 miles to his house from here. If he remembers the way. All the country lanes look the same. Nothing like the city. He gets splashed by a tractor but he doesn't react. Too emotionally tired to do anything other then shrug and wipe the mud off his face. 

\-- 

2 years and he can join the Army. He doesn't need school anyway. He could shoot someone if he wanted. He'd had a go on Alfie's gun and been able to shoot the top off a coke bottle from 100 paces. He works out until his muscles ache. As does his head. He's asleep by 9, wanting to black out the thought of school and people and life. Maybe he could just stop it all.


	2. Behind the Leisure Centre

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has evolved into something else. It's definitely not my experience now. Stuff I've picked up on at school though.

It doesn't get any easier. Each day is worse. He doesn't get lunch now. Spends free time behind the leisure centre with a group of traveller boys. They know what it's like to be the new kid. They help him forget. Let him smoke their cigarettes even if it sends him coughing and spitting into a bush.

\--

He ends up skipping lessons. His grades go from A*s to Cs and Ds. His apathy is visible on his face, in his posture and the way he talks to teachers. He finds himself in the learning support room almost daily. "Where's your tie?" and "Where's your homework." all familiar to his ears.

\--

Nobody tries to encourage him. Kids who move schools are always badly behaved - right? They let him be - punish him when needed but they don't try and stop the bad behaviour all together. It's an incident with a knife that brings his world to a halt. Shakes him awake and makes him realise what an idiot he'd really been.

\--

He hadn't meant to get into a fight. At first it was just fists and feet and then a knife was pressed into his hand. A present from one of his traveller mates. He doesn't use it - would he have if a teacher hadn't come round the corner? Maybe. He'll never know.

\--

He doesn't get suspended or expelled. His Dad sees to that. Pleads with the head that John's a good boy. Waves around report cards and certificates from his old school. His Dad hadn't noticed the change in John's attitude. New job, new house, new baby. John's just a things if the past. A relic from his old life only accepted if he's still the golden boy. 

\--

He doesn't go round the back of the leisure centre anymore. Plays rugby every lunchtime instead - harder than it seems especially on an empty stomach. Stays after school for extra practice and joins Army cadets. Spends hours polishing his boots and ironing his uniform. Things are looking up.

\--

If he keeps his head down he'll get along fine. He still needs to catch up on the work he'd misses when he'd been momentarily off track but he'll be able to. He asks his form teacher about the tutoring program and is signed up straight away. Assigned with a boy in his year. Unusual for someone of the same age to be doing the tutoring. He shrugs and write the date and time in his student planner - the new one he'd been given after loosing the first one. Or did someone use it to roll cigarettes?

\--

Cadets is every Monday and Thursday. He gets his first star in 5 weeks and sews it on his lapel in the car on the way home. His proudest achievement. There's a girl at cadets too. Mary - pretty, especially when John catches her releasing her long blond hair from the tight military bun. He'll ask her out if he makes the rugby team.

\--

He does. And scores 3 tries in his first match. Mud covered and dripping with sweat he pats his team mates on the back. Proud to be finally getting somewhere with his school mates. Actually making friends. He might even brave the dinner queue again.

\--

Ben and Alex and Jamie are forgotten. Abandoned for Will and Pete and Cameron. He even gets on well with his tutor - Sherlock. Odd name but it suited him because every Wednesday as they sat in the lunch hall as John went over chemistry formulae and German present tense verbs Sherlock would shoot random facts about teachers and students alike over the table to John. Stuff other people would never notice. John calls him brilliant because he is. Sherlock blushes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, comments and kudos appreciated. :-)

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos would be appreciated. Thanks for reading.


End file.
